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Saturday 19 December 2015

IT'S DONE!

On Thurs. Dec.17, 2015 I presented the ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT graphic novel as my Master's of Architecture thesis at the University of Toronto's Daniels school!


The audience was half professors and half students, I've never seen so many profs at one crit; the discussion ranged from criticisms within the story of norms in architectural education, challenging conventional modes of representation and whether it was okay for me to be as arcane as I was being; and was the feminist bit intentional?


 One of the best parts was when a visiting critic from U of Waterloo mused, "I remember when I was a young architecture student and I got so frustrated with the school that I drew a cartoon, and I wanted everyone to see it, so I posted it on the front door of the school.  It stirred up a lot of reactions and some people even responded with whole essays."  I asked, had they been positive or negative? He smiled and said "Both. One of them even told me I was way out of line and who did I think I was?"  And the visiting prof turned to smile at the guy sitting next to him, who turned red and chuckled.  "Sorry, I was a lot more hardcore and intolerant back then."  They're obviously friends now!


But the best for me was a prof who didn't speak much, just said at the end, "You've brought everything back to a place of deep essential meaning for you.  We all need to do this.  Keep doing this."  And another asked me to keep drawing like this.

Many, many thanks to my advisor, Prof. David Lieberman--without his appreciation and guidance, the completion of this ten-year degree and the commitment to this graphic novel would not have happened!  I have become a better artist for it and I vow to continue.

Daniels School of Architecture final Thesis presentations Booklet - Dec., 2016

The  graphic novel is more than 2/3 done... near future plans:
a) Complete all the pages, lay out and publish the final product.
c) Explore new avenues of professional growth.

 Thanks for all your support!  (And thanks to Utkarsh Singh​ for taking the photos of my presentation!)

Friday 4 December 2015

ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT, Page 10



A bit abstract - this page shows a plan view--think Google Perimeter--of Bagel Blue (little circle in lower left hand corner) walking angrily along the road away from the hamlet in which he grew up.  (Actually it's based on a painting by a certain Dutch modernist who liked grids!)

In other related news, I am excited about my upcoming thesis defense for my Master's of Architecture degree at U of T... it will be on Thurs. Dec. 17; the subject will be this graphic novel.  There will be a PowerPoint, original pages and a lively discussion.



Friday 27 November 2015

ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT, Page 9 + short re-interview with Val Peter





SHORT RE-INTERVIEW with Val Peter of "ARTIST UNKNOWN" 
This interview happened accidentally over Facebook as a
result of last week's posting. However, Val and Xyle did a long interview
with me for the online documentary channel Artist Unknown back on May 8, 2015


Q & A with Val Peter, re: ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT
(Facebook, Nov.20/15)

Val Peter So what do these drawings have to do with Architecture? I'm missing something or I didn't catch something from way back...I figured architecture would be like buildings!


Matthew Brown Yes, indeed! a) The graphic novel explores the creation of worlds, which include the architectural and urban design scales, b) the process of considering the graphics and the discipline of creating them comprises discipline ingrained from the world of architecture, c) the story is about a young man in an alternate world who pines to go to architecture school although he's from the remote provinces, finally gets his wish, and several days later the world ends. He is preserved from the destruction of the world in the mystical city of Varanasi / Benares which is suspended above the universal cycles of cosmic destruction and creation on Shiva's trident, and commissioned to design a new world! smile emoticon


Val Peter Wowza!! So your new graphic novel is called Architecture Department?


Matthew Brown Val Peter Yup! It's called "Architecture Department," and I had it planned in sketches and notes before I even had the idea of returning to complete my Arch. degree!


Val Peter So the architecture degree is helping you with the whole grasp of perspective in your drawings? Is that the sole incentive or is it moreso for the completion of your degree?


Matthew Brown These are good questions, Val! The interview continues wink emoticon


Val Peter You beat me to the punch!


Val Peter I was going to say interview completed after you answered the last Q....lol


Matthew Brown a) Architectural representation has a set of expected drawing conventions, such as the elevation, perspective, section, plan and axonometric/isometric drawings. It also presumes orthogonal (90 degree angles) or something deliberately opposed to it, and includes attempts to portray the experienced quality of a space or succession of spaces. Finally, the drawings are expected to convey a richness of conceptual information... all of these have made their mark! (Pun intended.)

b) My incentives were plural... I wanted to complete what I had begun, follow up my love of comics and investment in doing them, and I wanted to integrate my love of architecture and urban design into my exploration of the human subconscious and its divine/mundane expressions in the graphic novel form.

 (Phew!)

And earn the #$%&@*!! degree.


Val Peter (No question.) So I'm looking forward to seeing some archetypal wonders in your next book!!


Matthew Brown Yes my friend, I PROMISE TO DO MY BEST!!!!!


 

Friday 20 November 2015

ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT, Page 16 (with colour by Gabriel Valdiviesio)





I've been posting the pages in sequence, but today a  jump forward to page 16 to showcase the brilliant work of my fellow student in the Master's of Architecture program at University of Toronto--Mr. Gabriel Valdiviesio.  He graciously showed me his colour virtuosity in Photoshop, when I happened to be working on my black and white scans.

What do you think? 


Friday 30 October 2015

ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT PechaKucha

PechaKucha apparently means something like "jibber jabber" in Japanese, where the idea developed in 2003 for a dramatically condensed new presentation format,  since architects "talk too much":  20 X 20 = Twenty slides for twenty seconds each to get their idea across.  Since then  there's a sort of "PechaKucha" culture that's spread across the globe...



ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT
PechaKucha Thesis Report

Meanwhile, we were asked to do our midterm thesis report at U of T's Daniels Architecture as a PechaKucha. It was a real challenge to tie together my years of drawing, writing, traveling, studying and meditating  and boil it down into the 6 minutes and forty seconds about Varanasi, architecture and my graphic novel.  What do you think?  


Monday 12 October 2015

Back issues of THE CLIFF have come available!

A few copies of THE CLIFF Books 1-2, Book 3 and Book 4 have become available!    The graphic novel I'm working on right now, ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT, explains where THE CLIFF comes from, and is a kind of prequel.




If you'd like to order back issues of THE CLIFF while they last, please let me know -   teacherintherye@hotmail.com








In other exciting news--THE CLIFF will be collected for 2018 in a final complete edition by Editions TRIP, including the final chapter available in the collected edition only, Book 5: "The King"!



Friday 11 September 2015

RETURN TO ARCHITECTURE.

Yes, starting Monday I am officially resuming the Master's in Architecture I left off back at the end of 2008 at the University of Toronto.  I will do my thesis as a graphic novel called, appropriately enough, "Architecture Department"--about the creation of new worlds and the interplay of architecture and the human collective unconscious (and how bagels got their name.)






























I invite everyone to join me on this project as it unfolds... exciting, a little bit frightening--an integration of architecture, spirituality and the comic book form--a challenge to myself to step into new territory, present a manifesto to the world and go deeper than ever before.



Friday 31 July 2015

THE CLIFF, Book 5: "The King" - character process sketches

As I may have mentioned, while Mutt Blue was away in Varanasi helping Poopsie the Penguin find Carlos Brown's killer in THE CLIFF, Book 4: "Heart of Brightness," his friends on the Nexus Island between dimensions seem to have aged differently than him--which is to say, for him it's just been a week, but for his former adventurer friends it's been a decade and a half... fifteen years of life gone by.

These process sketches were done to test the "fifteen years down the line" look on Torvek Rotinski, Partridge Bark and Rabbit... and the passage of merely a week for Mutt.



Torvek Rotinski



Partridge Bark




Rabbit



Mutt Blue


Friday 24 July 2015

THE CLIFF, Book 5: "The King" - pages 10 & 11

Soon, I will stop posting updates about THE CLIFF, Book 5: "The King," and start posting news about the prequel to THE CLIFF -- a graphic novel project which I am jumping to in order to complete the thesis for my Master's of Architecture degree which I left off 7 years ago  -- called appropriately enough, ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT.

Here are the last two completed pages of THE CLIFF, Book 5... next will come some process sketches.  And then... what made the Cliff?  And who?  And why?  Some questions which are sort of addressed in the prequel, plus the destruction of the world by flood and the origin of the bagel.



Pg. 10





Pg. 11




Friday 17 July 2015

THE CLIFF, Book 5: "The King" - pages 8 & 9

Soon, I will stop posting updates about THE CLIFF, Book 5: "The King," and start posting news about the prequel to THE CLIFF -- a graphic novel project which I am jumping to in order to complete the thesis for my Master's of Architecture degree which I left off 7 years ago  -- called appropriately enough,


More news on that to come soon.  Before I do, please rest assured that THE CLIFF will finish in due time, and I will post the last few pages I've done before switching horses midstream, jumping penguins midline and playing pattycakes in the dark.




Pg. 8



Pg. 9





Saturday 27 June 2015

Thanks to my backers... I really appreciate it.

Dear Backers of THE CLIFF, Book Five: "The King" on Kickstarter, we didn't make it to the $2000 goal, but... every one of you touched me by volunteering some of your hard-earned dough toward my graphic novel.  More than the money it was your support that really validates my doing this project.  I feel better knowing you're out there.  
I completed one drawing for a backer because he was getting married and I was going to Philadelphia to join in the fun and got around the "no gifts" rule by making him his promised drawing in advance... I'm attaching the drawing it sans dedication, as a sort of "thank you" gift to him and all of you; please consider it my thank you gift to all of you.  


THE CLIFF: Poopsie the Penguin and his Secretary, Ms. Rebecca Nurse 
THE CLIFF: Poopsie the Penguin and his Secretary, Ms. Rebecca Nurse
I will continue THE CLIFF 'til the end, and am in pre-production with the next series: ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT, which is a prequel to THE CLIFF and explains the events leading up to it, including the world, the characters and their parents and in some cases, grandparents.  It promises to be surreal, funny, bewildering and as sublime as I can manage.  
Take care, stay in touch, shoot me an email from time to time - teacherintherye@hotmail.com
Most of you are my friends on Facebook, if not, please "friend" me. And finally, there is the blog which I update regularly!
Love, Matthew